Few poets typify Elizabethan patriotism so completely as Michael Drayton. His most ambitious poem, Polyolbion, is a fond effort to record the chorographic intricacies of his beloved isle. But he does more than that: he often transfers his interest from landscape to human beings. Thus in the Nineteenth Song he passes easily from rivers to men, paying his homage to those responsible for English prestige at sea. The rivers Orwell and Stour reach an agreement:(156-162) And lastly they agreeThat since the Britans hence their first discoveries made,And that into the East they first were taught to trade,Besides, of all the Roads, and Havens of the East,This Harbour where they meet is reckoned for the best.Our voyages by sea and brave discoveries known,Their argument they make, and thus they sing their own.
